Tuesday, January 18, 2011

How Fast Are You?

I hear this all the time during my clinic visits. (What they don't realize is that many of those keystrokes are the backspace key to edit mistakes I make while typing.)

But I thought it would be interesting to take a poll for a pseudo-scientific study (i.e., just for fun) using my friends and family from the blog-o-sphere and our lab to determine one of the most important dependent variables influencing the use of electronic medical records (EMRs): typing speed!

The results from some of the staff in our hospital are listed below:

Age

Staff Position

Words/min

Errors

Typing Class?

34

EP Fellow

71

6

Yes

52

EP Attending

40

2

No

50

CV Attending

30

2

Yes

58

CV Attending

24

0

No

38

EP Attending

52

6

Yes

It would be fun to see what your typing speed is, too!

So here's how to add your data to the mix:

1) Go to typingtest.com.
2) Take the 1 minute typing test and record your typing speed calculated by the program and include the number of errors it found as well.
3) Enter your (a) age, (b) staff position, (c) Net typing speed in words per minute (the one AFTER the errors are subtracted out), (d) the number of errors you made, and whether you have ever had typing class or not, then enter the results in the comments section. If you make a mistake, take the best result from the first three tries from the test.

This might just become the single largest depository of documented medical errors on the internet!

Of course, it also explains why there is a propensity to keep EMR documentation on patients very, very brief.

28 comments:

I like brief for privacy; don't like brief for lack of thoroughness. Then again, typing mistakes can foul one's EMR's. I liked doctor notes, ah, but wait, there was the risk that someone trying to interpret doctor's handwriting could cause mistakes and run the risk of a law suit too. I think you are in the spin of a rut. Damn government; they make everything more complicated, time consuming and expensive while jeopardizing the patient doctor relationship and effective medicine. Took the typing test though. Not such a good thing to hunt and peck with two long nail index fingers. I'll stick to my keyboard at home with spell check while my fingers tap away at high speed! Oh, wait, spell check misses too!!!

I also took a typing class in high school, but don't think it really sunk in, because I don't use that finger placement style. Or maybe it did, I don't know. I figure that I make my cerebellum do the typing.

If I try to rush and "beat the clock" the accuracy goes way down and not much change in the net. I have noted over the years that there are specific errors that I am prone too. Ususally it is that my right hand moves faster then my left hand and so letters get swtiched, usually "hte".

37 years oldThe Happy Hospitalist-Attending MD62 (67-5) WPMTyping class in high school on an honest to God typewriter.

You know, you can use a program called "Dragon Medical" (iPhone/iPad App) to audio type your text into an EMR. Get your hospital to get a license. You just talk and the text is immediate. No typing. Just talking.

About Me

Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC is a board certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist (doctor specializing in heart rhythm disorders) practicing at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL, USA and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. He entered the blog-o-sphere in November, 2005.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly the those of the author(s) and should not be construed as the opinion(s) or policy(ies) of NorthShore University HealthSystem, nor recommendations for your care or anyone else's. Please seek professional guidance instead.